Flexi Cloud/Production Manager on two computers?

[303DC]

Flexi hasn't replied to my email, so I figured I'd come here and ask. Is there a way to install Production Manager only on a different computer, and keep Flexi Cloud on another one? Basically, I'd like to have the main software on my office machine where I do all design and setup, then have production manager on the computer by the printer and use that as just a RIP. Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[303DC]

Turns out I have to pay $19.95/mo (with 1 year commitment, otherwise $29.95/mo) for a "Designer Only" station to accomplish this. However, I think I got a RIP with my printer that I may be able to link the two together with. Going to test that out here in a bit.

 

[Solventinkjet]

It will be interesting to see if an older version will work with the cloud version. Normally, when you go to send a job to the production manager it will ask you if the production manager is local or on the network and lets you input the IP address of the computer it is on. So it seems it is designed to work that way. Let us know!

 

[chrisphilipps]

The issue hear is a "softkey" license vs a hardware key license. If you have the Sentenal hardware key and both computers are on the same network you can install Flexi and Production Manager on different computers. If you have a "softkey" license you can't and you would have to purchase the FlexiDESIGNER as a subscription or a perpetual license. If you do wind up buying Designer please note that both Designer and FlexiSIGN-PRO (now FlexiSIGN & PRINT) must be the same version for it to work. The FlexiDESIGNER you purchase would be version 12 so Production Manager would also have to be version 12.

 

[303DC]

It will be interesting to see if an older version will work with the cloud version. Normally, when you go to send a job to the production manager it will ask you if the production manager is local or on the network and lets you input the IP address of the computer it is on. So it seems it is designed to work that way. Let us know!

Didn't work, unfortunately.

 

[ruckstande]

I just had a similar discussion with support today. I'm curious about why you'd want to split up the software though and not just try and install the cloud software on two machines which is possible. The only problem or not problem depending on your situation is that whichever computer you want to run the software on is you have to de-register your computer from the Installation Manager on the other pc. It's mighty inconvenient but it should work. Right now I'm running version 10 on two machines with one hardware key. We don't run the software that often and have no problems since we never run it at the same time.

 

[SightLine]

I was curious about that. Yet another reason I'm happy we have stayed on the perpetual licensed dongle version because that is exactly how we have things set up. I'm kind of surprised that they have not broken the Production Manager and Designer into two separate "licenses" when bought as any of the editions which have Production Manager. It just makes sense in that the "ideal" configuration is a shop would have a dedicated and separate computer for the RIP (Production Manager) itself. I realize many, if not most do not do this but it does give the opportunity to eliminate any "surfing" or any other general use on a machine that in my opinion is critical to the business running.

What is nice is we have multiple designers here and at any time any one person can open the Designer part of Flexi. If another tries they get a error - cannot find the license key. The dongle is plugged in on the dedicated RIP and it always has Production Manager open. We then installed the very same Flexi install on every workstation (then delete the Production Manager icons since that is not needed on the workstations). The workstations basically see the dongle over the network. Sometimes someone does have to wait for another to get out of Flexi so they can get in and send a job but we have also since added a "designer" only also dongle license for one employee who is submitting the most jobs. All users send jobs with a "hold in list" instead of "send now". Than anyone can simply walk over to the RIP, select their job, load the material they need and send it. Works great for us.